1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing digital video data. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for determining whether to deliver marketing content to a particular customer based on dynamic customer data elements for the particular customer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, merchants frequently had a personal relationship with their customers. The merchant often knew their customers' names, address, marital status, ages of their children, hobbies, place of employment, character, anniversaries, birthdays, likes, dislikes and personal preferences. The merchant was able to use this information to cater to customer needs and push sales of items the customer might be likely to purchase based on the customer's personal situation. The merchant was also able to determine whether a customer was a good customer that should receive special marketing efforts, a credit risk or bad customer that should not receive special marketing offers, or a customer that posed a risk or threat to the store or other customers based on the merchant's personal knowledge of the customer's character, reputation, and criminal history.
However, with the continued growth of large cities, the corresponding disappearance of small, rural towns, and the increasing number of large, impersonal chain stores with multiple employees, the merchants and employees of retail businesses rarely recognize regular customers, and almost never know the customer's name or any other details regarding their customer's personal preferences that might assist the merchant or employee in marketing efforts directed toward a particular customer.
One solution to this problem is directed toward using data mining techniques to gather customer profile data. The customer profile data is used to generate marketing strategies for marketing products to customers. Customer profile data typically includes information provided by the customer in response to a questionnaire or survey, such as the name, address, telephone number, and gender of customers, as well as products preferred by the customer. Demographic data regarding a customer's age, sex, income, career, interests, hobbies, and consumer preferences may also be included in customer profile data.
However, these methods only provide limited and generalized marketing strategies that are directed towards a fairly large segment of the population without taking into account actual customer reactions to product placement in a particular retail store or to other environmental factors that may influence product purchases by customers.
In an attempt to better monitor customers in large retail stores, these stores frequently utilize cameras and other audio and/or video monitoring devices to record customers inside the retail store or in the parking lot. A store detective may watch one or more monitors displaying closed circuit images of customers in various areas inside the store to identify shoplifters. However, these solutions require a human user to review the audio and video recordings. In addition, the video and audio recordings are typically used only for store security.
Thus, current solutions do not utilize all of the potential dynamic customer data elements that may be available for identifying customers that should be marketed to and customers that should not receive marketing content. The data elements currently being utilized to generate marketing strategies only provide approximately seventy-five percent (75%) of the needed customer data.